1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hybrid terminal, and more particularly to a method for informing a user of an available battery time of a hybrid terminal based on the operating mode of the hybrid terminal that has a plurality of operating modes and performs a function corresponding to a selection of a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the rapid development of the communication industry and the rapid extension of mobile communication services, a mobile communication terminal has become a necessary, and new communication terminals with various additional functions other than a telephone communication function are continually placed on the market to meet users' various wishes. Such mobile communication terminals have additional functions of, for example, a smart phone (a combination of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and the mobile communication terminal), a camera phone (a mobile communication terminal equipped with a camera), an MP3 phone equipped with an MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3) player, a Bluetooth module, etc. Recently, various models of such mobile communication terminals having at least one additional function have been introduced into the market, and are typically called “hybrid terminals”.
As shown in FIG. 1, a battery of the hybrid terminal includes a power supply terminal (Voltage Battery: VBT) 4, a voltage feedback terminal (VF) 3, a current feedback terminal (CF) 2, and a ground terminal (GND) 1. The battery receives a power supply voltage from a charger while the terminals thereof are connected to corresponding terminals disposed on a lower portion of a battery groove of the charger. The battery provides power supply voltage received from the charger to the hybrid terminal while the terminals thereof are connected to corresponding terminals disposed on a lower portion of the hybrid terminal.
Referring to FIG. 2, a description will be given of the configuration of the battery, the charger, and the hybrid terminal that are connected through the four terminals 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The battery 20 includes therein a terminal detection resistor Rv 21 connected to a terminal controller 13 of the hybrid terminal 10, and a charger detection resistor Rc 22 connected to a charger controller 32 of a charger 30.
The charger 30 includes a DC voltage converter 31, the charger controller 32, and a charger light-emitting unit 33. The DC voltage converter 31 converts an AC power supply voltage received through an outlet 38 to a DC power supply voltage, and then supplies the converted DC power supply voltage to the battery 20 through the power supply terminal 4. When the battery 20 is loaded in the charger, i.e., when the battery 20 is connected to the charger detection resistor 22 built in the battery 20 through the current feedback terminal 2, the charger controller 32 controls the charger light-emitting unit 33 to emit light indicating a loaded status of the battery 20. The charger controller 32 detects the level of voltage applied to and/or the amount of current flowing into the battery 20, and controls the charger light-emitting unit 33 to indicate a charging status of the battery 20, based on the detected voltage level or current amount.
As mentioned above, the charger light-emitting unit 33 emits light indicating the loaded status and the charging status of the battery, mainly using an LED (Light Emitting Diode), under the control of the charger controller 32. Generally, under the control of the charger controller 32, the charger light-emitting unit 33 emits a continuous red light until the completion of charging while the battery 20 is correctly loaded, and emits a blinking red light when the battery 20 is not correctly loaded. Under the control of the charger controller 33, the charger light-emitting unit 33 emits a green light when the battery 20 is completely charged, and emits the continuous red light when it is not completely charged.
The hybrid terminal 10 includes a display unit 11, a power supply unit 12, an alarm driver 15, a terminal light-emitting unit 16, and the terminal controller 13 that includes an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) 14. The power supply unit 12 receives the DC power supply voltage from the battery 20 through the power supply terminal 4. When the battery is loaded, i.e., when the terminal controller 13 is connected to the terminal detection resistor 21 built in the battery 20 through the voltage feedback terminal 3, the terminal controller 13 detects the level of voltage received from and/or the amount of current flowing from the battery 20.
In addition, the terminal controller 13 converts an analog data representing the detected voltage level or current amount to a digital data using the ADC 14.
Further, the terminal controller 13 controls the display unit 11, the alarm driver 15, and the terminal light-emitting unit 16 to inform the user of a charge status of the battery 20, based on the converted digital data. Similar to the charger light-emitting unit 33, the terminal light-emitting unit 16 indicates the charge status of the battery 20, mainly using an LED, under the control of the controller 13. Generally, the terminal light-emitting unit 16 emits a blinking a red light when the charge status of the battery 20 becomes lower than a predetermined capacity.
The alarm driver 15 generates an alarm sound for informing the user of a low charge status of the battery 20 under the control of the terminal controller 13. That is, the alarm driver 15 generates the alarm sound when the charge status of the battery 20 becomes lower than the predetermined capacity.
The display unit 11 displays an icon indicating the charge status of the battery 20 under the control of the terminal controller 13. Generally, the display unit 11 displays the charge status of the battery 20 in stages using a battery-shaped icon, and blinks the battery-shaped icon when the charge status of the battery 20 becomes lower than the predetermined capacity.
As mentioned above, the battery, the charger, and the hybrid terminal can connect to each other through the power supply terminal 4, the voltage feedback terminal 3, the current feedback terminal 2, and the ground terminal 1, and the user can be informed of the loaded, charging, and remaining-capacity states of the battery through the four terminals.
However, when the charge status of the battery becomes lower than the predetermined capacity, the hybrid terminal having such a configuration displays only a schematic charge status of the battery using the icon, or informs the user with the LED or the alarm driver, without any function to accurately display the available battery time based on the operating mode (either the current operating mode or another operating mode set by the user) with a given remaining capacity of the battery. Generally, a battery product manual provides a definite available continuous-calling time and a definite available continuous-standby time. But, because the battery has different discharge characteristics for each function, the conventional hybrid terminal fails to correctly indicate how much time the hybrid terminal can continue to be used in each operating mode with a given remaining capacity of the battery.